


Chasing Hopes And Dreams

by Whiskey_With_Patron



Series: Flores Facets [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Happy Ending, M/M, Mild Angst, Nico has his own sides, implied past toxic relationship, near panic attack, nico's paranoia is lowkey a jerk but i love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27178399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whiskey_With_Patron/pseuds/Whiskey_With_Patron
Summary: There's a book fair at the local library, and Nico is determined to show his work to some of the publishers. However, Nico's paranoia is dead set on ruining the whole thing. Paranoia and Creativity are at war the entire time, and Nico doesn't know how to handle it. Things get even worse when he bumps into someone familiar.
Relationships: Nico Flores/Thomas Sanders
Series: Flores Facets [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1970398
Comments: 38
Kudos: 145





	Chasing Hopes And Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> me writing the first part of this series: there won't be any angst in this series, i want it to be kind of lighthearted like season one of Sanders Sides. let's not deteriorate Nico's mental health, he doesn't deserve that
> 
> me writing this: ok so let's almost give Nico a panic attack-
> 
> ANYWAY here's the next part of this series! i was going to write this series so it was similar to season one of Sanders Sides with a bunch of unrelated issues being solved in a lighthearted manor but whOOPS this is going to end up going downhill REAL quick, y'all best get ready to meet some of Nico's dark sides eventually

Logic blinked through his orange framed glasses at the scene in front of him. “What are you two doing?”

Nico looked up. He and Creativity sat across from each other at the dining table, a dozen notebooks and sticky notes scattered between them. Nico’s laptop was propped in front of him. The room was illuminated only by a small lamp Nico had moved to the table a few hours ago. 

“We’re writing, nerd,” Creativity said. “What does it look like?”

Logic lifted his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was fighting off a growing headache. “It looks like you’re sitting here at two in the morning, fooling around with notebooks. Why are you awake at this hour?”

“It’s two a.m.?” Nico looked up at the clock. Sure enough, it was two in the morning. How had he not noticed how late it was?

“Yes,” Logic said. “We need to go to sleep.”

“But we’re writing, Logic,” Creativity whined. “Don’t you know what tomorrow is?”

Logic heaved a sigh. A planner appeared in his hands and he flipped it open. His shoulders slumped. “Right. The book fair.”

“The book fair!” Creativity announced with a flourish and a wave of his purple wizard cloak. 

Nico shut the notebook he had open next to his laptop. “There are going to be a lot of publishers there. If they can read some of our work, we might be able to publish that poem book we’ve been working on.”

“Or the fantasy novel,” Creativity suggested. “Wouldn’t that be cool? No more self publishing! We’ll have an actual publishing company behind us to endorse our work. Logic, we’ll further our career and be taken seriously as an author.”

Logic scratched his chin. “I do like being taken seriously.” He shook his head. “But this is ridiculous. What good is writing at two a.m. going to do? Nico, you’ll just get tired.”

Nico yawned. “No I won’t,” he muttered. He knew Logic was right, but they just had a few more things to do. 

“We still have to figure out what we’re going to present to the publishers,” Creativity said. “We need to make a good first impression.”

“You need to sleep,” Logic corrected. “You know what happens when Nico doesn’t get a good night’s sleep.”

Creativity shook his head. “Not a clue.” 

”Really? Were you not paying attention last time Nico pulled an all-nighter?”

“Nope,” Creativity said, popping the “p”. 

“I think he fell asleep last time we tried to write this late,” Nico said. 

Logic sighed. “I’m talking about the morning after. Nico, tomorrow is going to suck if you don’t go to bed soon. _One_ of us gets really agitated when you’re tired.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nico said. “I’ll be fine. We just need to pick what I’m going to show to the publishers, and I’ll go right to bed.”

Logic crossed his arms. “You’re lying to me.”

Nico slumped in his chair. “I’m lying to you.” 

“Come on Logic, just another ten minutes,” Creativity begged. He clasped his hands together. “Please?”

“I can’t stop you, can I?” Logic sighed. 

“No,” Creativity said. 

Logic narrowed his eyes. “You’re going to regret this. You know you will.” He sank out of the room. 

Creativity sat back down. “Back to work!”

“Back to work,” Nico affirmed, opening his notebook again. 

Nico didn’t know exactly when he nodded off after that. It was probably somewhere between Creativity acting out an entire battle with a dragon and Creativity reciting a poem he’d written about a guy Nico had met at the mall. All he knew was that he was listening to Creativity speak and his eyelids grew heavy, and he could have sworn he heard a snake-ish voice telling him to go to sleep just before his eyes slid shut. 

“Wake up, sleepyhead!”

Nico yelped and bolted upright. He glanced around frantically. Standing at the dining table was someone who looked identical to Nico, decked out in a bright yellow t-shirt, a pair of shorts, and a sweater tied around his waist. Porcelain-like cracks covered half his face, but he still wore a smile. 

Nico straightened his glasses. “Morning, Heart.” He gestured to his face. “Those are looking better.”

“And I’m feeling better,” Heart said. “Mostly.”

Nico tore a sticky note off his face. “What time is it?”

Heart looked at the clock. “Ten thirty-six.”

At that, Creativity sat up, his eyes wide. “The book fair!”

A wave of realization washed over Nico. “Right!” He scrambled to his feet and grabbed one of his notebooks. “Did we decide what to present to the publishers?”

“No,” Creativity said. He flipped through a notebook and stuck notes onto random pages. 

Logic appeared on one of the chairs around the dining table, business suit as crisp and neat as ever. “That’s what happens when you stay up that late,” he said. 

“Can it, Logic!” Creativity said. “What are we going to present?”

“We don’t have time to print our draft of the fantasy novel,” Nico said. “We’ll have to stick with something from the notebooks. What poems are we feeling?”

“Let’s just bring a bunch of notebooks and figure it out when we get there,” Creativity suggested. 

“Yes, that can’t possibly go wrong,” Logic scoffed. 

Creativity crossed his arms. “Do you have a better idea, nerd?”

Logic shrugged. “Go to sleep earlier next time.” He stood and smoothed out his suit. “I’ll be in my room. I don’t want to be here when the little hell demon wakes up.” He sank out of the room. 

Heart watched him leave. “Well. This isn’t going to go well.” He picked up Nico’s backpack off the floor. “But we can still try!”

Nico and Creativity each grabbed a few notebooks and shoved them in the backpack. Nico added his laptop for good measure. He zipped up the backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and rushed out the door. 

As soon as he hopped into his car, Logic appeared in the passenger seat. “You forgot to change your clothes.”

Nico glanced down at himself. He was still wearing his sweatpants and hoodie from yesterday, which were rumpled from his sleep on the table. 

He sighed and jammed his keys in the ignition. “It’s fine. They can’t be superficial enough to judge me based off what I’m wearing.”

“I’m just saying, something a little more punctual would have been nice.”

Nico ignored that comment and started driving. “Do you remember how to get to the library?”

Logic motioned with his head towards another street. “Turn that way. Keep going straight until we get to Main Street.”

Nico did as Logic directed. He let himself zone out as he drove. God, he wanted to sleep. How much rest had he actually gotten last night? He was vaguely aware of Logic sinking out again during the drive.

“Hit the breaks!”

Nico slammed his foot on the breaks, heart pounding in his chest. The car jolted to a stop. A rubber ball had rolled into the street in front of him. He watched, chest heaving, as a kid scurried into the street and snatched the ball.

Nico put the car in park and whirled around to face the backseat. “Jesus Christ, don’t do that to me, Paranoia!”

Another version of Nico sat in the back. His cloak and hood obscured most of his body, but his eyes flashed a deep blue under the hood.

“What else was I supposed to do?” Paranoia growled. “Let you crash into a kid?”

“She wasn’t in the street,” Nico protested.

“But she was running in that direction.” Paranoia’s form shifted, and he appeared in the passenger seat. “You would have crashed right into her.”

“She was waiting for me to pass,” Nico said.

“You should have been paying more attention.”

“Ah, I see the hell demon is awake,” Logic’s voice said. He appeared in the backseat, legs crossed. “He’s right in a way. You should be paying more attention. In fact, you shouldn’t even be driving when you’re this tired. We could still turn around and go home.”

“That would be best,” Paranoia agreed. “You’re only going to embarrass yourself in front of everyone anyway. No one’s going to want to read our bad poetry.”

“Do not insult my work,” Logic said. “Regardless, three out of the eight of your facets are all in agreement that we should go home, and one of the others doesn’t even care, so I’m making the executive decision that he agrees with us.”

“No, I—” Nico paused. “Wait, eight? There’s more than just the four of you?”

“Don’t focus on that!” Paranoia said, interrupting his train of thought. “Get driving. We need to go back home.”

“No.” Nico shifted back into drive and kept going forward as soon as he concluded that no one was in the road. “I want to at least try to show someone my work. I’m not going home until I talk to one publisher.”

Paranoia scoffed. “Fine then.”

Nico kept driving, but Paranoia’s constant presence set him on edge. He jumped whenever a pedestrian got too close to the road, hit the brakes a little to hard at every traffic light, winced every time Paranoia snapped at him to convince him to go back home.

Nico’s hands were shaking by the time he reached his destination. He parked the car and took a deep breath.

“This isn’t a good idea,” Paranoia said.

“I don’t care,” Nico said. “Creativity will be disappointed if I back out. I will be disappointed if I back out.” He grabbed his backpack from the backseat. “Don’t bug me while I’m in there.”

“I can’t make any promises.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Nico hopped out of the car. After locking the car thanks to a frantic reminder from Paranoia to do so lest someone steal it, he started across the parking lot to the doors of the library. Hanging over the doors was a large banner that read “BOOK FAIR!” Multiple other people were making their way towards the library, some in groups, some alone.

Nico hefted his backpack and paused in front of the doors. “If your backpack is on your back, someone could easily open it and steal something,” Paranoia hissed.

Nico grimaced. He took his backpack off with shaking hands and held it at his side instead. He stepped into the building. As soon as he set foot through the doors, Creativity appeared in a furry of sparkles.

“Ooh, books!” he squealed. He clasped his hands together and spun around, gazing at the inside of the building as his cape swished around him. “Look at all these booths! There are writing classes we could sign up for, seminars on writing descriptions...” He gasped and pointed at a booth. “Oh, there’s one for poetry analysis! Come on!”

He ran towards it. Paranoia dashed forward and grabbed the back of Creativity’s cape. Creativity yelped as he was yanked to a halt.

“We’re not going sightseeing,” Paranoia snapped. “We’re getting this over with. Where are the publishers?”

Creativity heaved a dramatic sigh. “Come on, Doom and Gloom, can’t we look around a little? There are so many things here. Surely we could be inspired by some of this.”

“Yeah, inspired. Don’t you mean, we’d be stealing other people’s book ideas because we can’t be original on our own?”

Creativity put a hand to his chest and gasped in offence. “How dare you suggest that I’m not original!”

“Guys, I’m not in the mood,” Nico said. “I’m really tired. Can we just go find the publishers?”

“Don’t talk to us out loud,” Paranoia said. “People are staring.”

Nico glanced around. It didn’t look like people were staring, but what if they were? They probably just looked away the moment Nico looked at them. Oh god, he was already embarrassing himself. He didn’t need this. Maybe he should just go home.

“Nonsense!” Creativity grabbed Nico’s wrist and dragged him further into the building. “We are going to talk to some publishers. Our hopes and dreams of being a published author shall not be squandered by some mere anxiety!”

“Mere?” Paranoia shouted. “ _Mere?_ You think I’m just some mere anxiety?” He floated closer to Creativity. “I’m your worst nightmare, you overdressed Harry Potter knockoff!”

“Shush, shush,” Creativity said with a wave of his hand, as if Paranoia was some annoying insect. “Nico, are you sure we can’t at least go look at one of the writing booths? Oh, or that booth selling old used books. We are running out of things to read, and I’m sure Logic would like some new material.” He nudged Nico with his elbow. “Hmm? Logic, you listening? We can get more stuff to read.”

Nico glanced at the booth with the old books. “Well... it couldn’t hurt to get something new. Well, old, in this case. But new to us.” His gaze travelled to the writing booths. “And we could learn some new stuff.”

Paranoia grabbed his shoulders and glared at him. “Logic, I thought you were with me on this. Come on, Nico, you’re too tired to be here. Let’s go home. We can go to the next book fair.”

“It’s not guaranteed that there will be publishers at another book fair,” Creativity argued. “This is a writing fair, too. Come on, we can get noticed here.”

Nico let Creativity pull him along. Paranoia drifted along behind them. “You’re making a mistake, Flores,” he growled.

Nico’s grip tightened on his backpack. “Just let me talk to one publisher.”

“One,” Paranoia stated. “That’s it.”

Creativity scanned the library. “Hmm... sci-fi books, poetry books, picture books, children’s books—aha!” He tugged Nico to a stop. “Publishers!”

Creativity changed direction and dragged Nico along behind him. Nico gently tugged his wrist out of Creativity’s grasp so it didn’t look like he was being pulled around by an invisible person... which was exactly what was happening, but no one else needed to know that.

He paused at the edge of a small crowd. They were all gathered around a table where a few people sat, each one talking to someone else standing at the table. Nico watched as one of the publishers handed someone’s notebook back to them with a shake of their head.

“We’re going to get turned down,” Paranoia said. “Don’t even try.”

“Nonsense!” Creativity scoffed. “Nico is a perfectly capable writer. We can easily charm these publishers into considering our work.”

“He looks like he just crawled out of a dumpster,” Paranoia said.

“I don’t look that bad,” Nico said.

“You didn’t even comb your hair!”

Nico took a deep breath and started forward. He ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to fix it a little. He straightened his glasses as he approached the table.

He stopped within the crowd of people. Everyone else there looked so much neater, like they hadn’t stayed up until two a.m. obsessively trying to figure out what writing was their best work. He wanted to shrink down in his sweater so no one could see him. Maybe Paranoia was right. He was just going to make a fool out of himself.

“Come on, Nico,” Creativity said. “Where’s all that usual confidence?”

“I’m tired, man,” Nico sighed. “I don’t know what to say or how to say it. Logic was right. I should have slept more.”

Creativity took Nico by the shoulders. “Nico, I know Paranoia is being a pain in the butt, but you can do this. You’re confident, you’re charismatic, you’re—”

“Hey, kid!”

Creativity glanced back at the publishers’ table. “You’re being called over there.”

Nico’s eyes widened. “What?”

Creativity shoved Nico forward. “Destiny awaits!”

Nico stumbled forwards, clutching his backpack in both hands. He slowed to a stop in front of the table. The publisher who had called him over sat in her seat with a smile on her face, glasses perched on top of her head instead of over her eyes. Smile lines crinkled around her eyes.

“You look lost, kid,” she said. “What do you need?”

“Make up an excuse and leave,” Paranoia insisted.

“No, find a notebook to show her!” Creativity interrupted. “Grab the one with the owl print on the cover. That has my best work.”

Nico cleared his throat as he collected his thoughts. “Um, I was wondering if I could show you some of my work? I’ve been wanting to publish some stuff for a while. I mean, officially. I’ve self published before.”

The woman nodded as he spoke. “Do you have a bit of a following through your self-published works?”

“Not really,” Nico admitted. “I’ve got a few consistent readers. Some of them are just... y’know, my friends and family. But there are other people online who have said they like my stuff. I’ve got a few beta readers and editors.”

“So you can take the criticism of the people who edit for you?” the woman asked.

“Yeah. I don’t think I would even have the following I have without them. Not to say that I’m a bad writer! I just... value their opinions.”

“That’s a good sign, then,” the woman said. She held out a hand. “I’m Rhea. I work with a small publishing company.”

Nico shook her hand. “I’m Nico Flores. Nice to meet you.”

Rhea folded her hands on the table. “Do you have any work available for me to look at?”

“The owl notebook,” Creativity said. “Turn on the charisma! Present your work!”

Paranoia grimaced under his hood. “This is all going to go down the drain the moment you say something stupid. Which is inevitable.”

Nico unzipped his backpack and rummaged through it. He grabbed the notebook Creativity wanted and flipped through it. “I mostly only have poetry,” he said. “Sorry if that’s not what you want. I didn’t have time to print off the draft of my novel.”

Rhea lowered her glasses over her eyes. “Well, we were looking for a novel, but this could be interesting.”

Nico landed on his most recent poem, one that he’d written about the cute guy he’d met at the mall a few days ago. Right next to it was a poem about his ex. He hoped these publishers weren’t homophobic. Maybe he should pick something else.

“You’ve been stalling too long,” Creativity said. “Hand her the notebook. Those two are my best work we have available right now.”

“She’s going to hate it,” Paranoia hissed.

Nico laughed nervously and held out his notebook. “Uh... most of my poems are a little gay.”

“That sounds promising, then,” Rhea said with a smirk. She looked down at his notebook and scanned the page.

Someone nudged Nico’s side. “Nico,” Paranoia said, his voice shaky. “Nico, look over there.”

Nico suppressed a sigh, but he looked where Paranoia wanted. His blood ran cold.

Creativity’s eyes widened. “Oh no,” he whispered. “We have to leave.”

Standing at a nearby booth, flipping through a fantasy book, was Nico’s ex. His gaze was fixed on the book, but it was only a matter of time before he caught sigh of Nico. Nico’s heart skipped a beat, but whether that was from affectionate longing or pure terror was anyone’s guess.

“Mr. Flores?”

Nico’s breathing quickened. “Um, I have to go,” he said.

“But your work—”

Nico turned on his heel and left the crowd of people. Creativity grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door, but before they could take a step, someone else grabbed Nico’s other hand and tugged him in the other direction.

“He’s actually here,” Heart said, voice thick with emotion. “We can talk to him. Please, he wants to get back together as much as I do.”

Creativity gave Nico’s arm a sharp tug, causing him to stumble. “Heart, I thought we were over this. You blocked his number yourself. He’s wrong for us. He is the reason Paranoia is Paranoia!”

“But he didn’t mean it,” Heart whined. “Please, please Creativity, can we just talk to him? We can let him explain, we... we can get back together, we can be happy again with him—”

“We met Thomas a few days ago,” Creativity argued. “We haven’t even given him a chance yet. We don’t need someone who’s bad for Nico’s career when there’s potential elsewhere.”

Nico grimaced and pulled his arms in so Creativity and Heart weren’t yanking him back and forth. “Guys, I don’t know if this is a good idea.” He looked up at Paranoia, who was hovering there, glancing between Heart and Creativity as they bickered. “Paranoia, you’re my... my fight or flight, my sense of danger. What do I do?”

Paranoia looked back and forth between Heart and Creativity. He grabbed his hood in both hands and tugged it over his face. “I... I don’t...” His breathing grew more rapid. “I can’t...”

“Paranoia, please,” Heart begged, tears in his eyes. “We’re nothing without him, you know that. Please. We have to talk to him.”

Creativity scowled. “We are much better off without him. Logic, get your butt out here and help me!”

Paranoia’s grip tightened on the fabric of his hood. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t, I don’t know.”

Nico’s own breathing grew quicker as his panic grew. Leaving would be the smart thing. He never should have come here in the first place. But god, his ex was right there, he could say something and they could get back together like he’d wanted to for weeks.

“Nico?”

Nico scrambled away from the sudden voice. He tripped over his own feet and tumbled to the ground.

A hand reached out to him. “Here, let me help you up.”

Nico took the hand and someone pulled him to his feet. He looked up, and his stomach dropped.

“Hi Jamie,” Nico whispered.

Nico’s ex smiled. “It’s good to see you. I’ve been waiting to hear from you. Have you been getting my texts?”

“Abort mission!” Creativity shouted, waving his wizard staff around. “Say you’ve got better stuff to do. If he makes a move, make a scene. Scare him away!”

“No,” Heart protested. “Give him a chance. Maybe he’s changed. Let him talk.”

Paranoia’s cold hands gripped Nico’s shoulders in a vice grip. “If you want to get back together, you have to make a good impression. Tell him you forgot to unblock his number after you broke up.”

Creativity’s jaw dropped. “Oh come on! Para, I thought you were with me!” He threw his hands up in the air. “Is no one else on my side for this?”

Nico laughed nervously. “Uh, I forgot to unblock your number after we broke up. I’ve been meaning to call you.”

Jammie’s face brightened. “Really?”

Heart sighed wistfully. “I love it when he smiles.”

“That smile means nothing!” Creativity shouted. “He’ll turn on you like... like a snake! And no, I don’t care which facet of your personality is offended by that comparison!” He paused. “Although, I suppose that one is more of a dragon than a snake...”

“Yeah, really,” Nico continued, ignoring the voices arguing around him. “I, uh...”

“Want to get back together?” Heart suggested.

“Don’t be too direct,” Paranoia said.

Creativity sighed. “Look, if you’re so dead set on doing this, at least let him know how much he hurt you. He can’t get away with that again.”

Nico took a deep breath to calm his beating heart. As inclined as he was to follow Heart’s advice, Creativity brought up a good point.

“Jamie,” he said, and just saying his name felt strange after not saying it for so long. It left a bit of a bad taste in his mouth. “I don’t know how this will work.”

Jamie’s face fell. “What do you mean?”

Nico steeled his nerves and ignored Heart’s longing gazes at Jamie. He didn’t want to have this conversation in the middle of a library during a book fair, but he still had to say something.

“You did and said a lot of things that hurt me,” Nico blurted in a rush to get the words out. “I don’t know how we can come back from that. You kept apologizing and saying you’d get better, but that never happened. If we’re going to try... we need to have a long talk about that.”

Jamie nodded and scratched the back of his neck, avoiding Nico’s gaze. “Right. I shouldn’t have thought it would be that easy. How about we go grab a bite to eat at that diner you like?”

“We never actually liked that diner,” Creativity said. “We only said we did because he insisted we go there. Nico, do you not remember all the time he spent trying to control where we went for everything?”

Heart clasped his hands together. “Please, Nico, I really, really want to give him a chance.”

“We don’t want him to hate us, do we?” Paranoia added.

Nico glanced between his three facets. He wished Logic was here. He could sort this out. He always did.

“You mean, right now?” Nico asked.

Jamie shrugged. “Yeah, why not? You’re not doing anything else, are you?”

Nico turned his gaze to Creativity. “Actually, I’m here to talk to some publishers.”

Jamie raised an eyebrow. “Oh. You’re still doing that... writing thing? You didn’t quit?”

“No!” Creativity scoffed. “Of course we didn’t!”

“No, of course I didn’t,” Nico repeated. “I like writing.”

“It’s kind of a waste though, isn’t it? I mean, it’s not a sustainable career.” Jamie gave a nervous chuckle. “But what do I know? I’m just some idiot who’s practically illiterate.”

“No, no you’re not,” Nico said automatically. “You’re really smart.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Nico said. “I mean, you’re here at a book fair. That’s for smart people, right?”

“I guess.” Jamie held out a hand. “So, are we going?”

Nico stared down at his hand. Creativity shouted in the back of his head, urging him to run as far and fast as he could, while Heart pushed him to give Jamie a chance. Paranoia stood in the middle of this, desperately trying to make up his mind, torn between being scared of getting stuck in a bad relationship again and wanting so badly to feel like he had worth by being with Jamie.

Nico swallowed. “Um... I—”

“Hey Nico!”

Nico whirled around at the voice. Relief flooded his body as he spotted a familiar face appear out of a crowd.

Thomas stopped next to Nico. “Hey, I didn’t think I would see you here.” His face flushed. “I mean, I guess I should have expected it because you’re a writer and everything, and book fairs are right up your alley as an author, but I...” He saw Jamie and turned to him. “Oh, hello. I’m Thomas. Who are you?”

Jamie blinked at Thomas. “Nico, who is this?”

“He’s a friend,” Nico blurted. His face grew warm when he just clearly implied that Thomas was only a friend right in front of Thomas. “I mean, kind of. We met a few days ago. He’s pretty cool. Thomas, this is Jamie.”

Thomas held out a hand towards Jamie. “Nice to meet you.”

Jamie hesitated, but he shook Thomas’s hand. “Back at you.” He looked back at Nico. “So, anyway—”

“Hey, Nico,” Thomas interrupted. “I was wondering if you were up for getting coffee later. Or lunch. Or something. As long as it’s not Karrot King.” He shuddered. “I don’t think I could stand any more boiled carrots.”

A laugh bubbled up in Nico’s chest at that. “Oh my god, I forgot about the carrots.”

“Well, I hope you forgot about the trash can,” Thomas said. He shook his head. “Not one of my best moments.”

“Even if I had forgotten about it, you just brought it up again.”

Thomas groaned. “Oh, dang it.”

Nico giggled. He looked at Jamie. “Sorry, I’m going to have to take a rain check.”

He turned and started walking away with Thomas. “We’ll text you!” Paranoia called to Jamie.

“I’ll text you!” Nico repeated, knowing full well that was a lie.

Once they were out of earshot, Thomas turned to Nico. “Hey, are you okay? You looked really uncomfortable. Who was that guy?”

Nico sighed. “Just an ex. I’ve been avoiding him for the past couple months. I didn’t think we’d bump into each other here. I just wanted to talk to some publishers.”

“Ex boyfriends,” Thomas sighed. “Always hard to move on from.”

“Yeah,” Nico agreed. “Just out of curiosity, why did you come help me? It’s not that I wish you hadn’t, I was really having trouble making a decision about him, but why did you come to help?”

Thomas shrugged. “I don’t know. You just looked kind of scared, I guess. I wanted to make sure nothing bad was going on.”

Nico tensed. He didn’t think he’d been scared, but with the way Paranoia was acting, he wasn’t surprised that his panic was obvious.

“Well, thanks,” Nico said. “I appreciate that a lot.”

Thomas smile a little, a blush lighting up his cheeks. “It’s no big deal. We don’t actually have to get lunch or anything, I was just saying that to give you an excuse to leave... I mean, unless you want to? But it’s no pressure, I just wanted to help, and—”

“I want to,” Nico said.

Thomas’s face turned even more red. “You do?”

“Yeah.” Nico sighed. “I kind of ran away from the publishers anyway. I think I wrecked my chances there, so...”

“Mr. Flores?”

Nico turned around. Standing behind him was Rhea, the publisher from before. Nico cringed in embarrassment as he remembered how he’d just showed up in sweatpants, said his poems were gay, and then left.

“Hi,” he said.

Rhea held out a notebook, and it took Nico a moment to register that it was his. “I read a couple of your poems,” she said. “They’re very well written. If you ever have any longer works you would like someone to look at...” She held out a busines card and smiled. “Give me a call.”

Nico stared at her. “You... liked my work?”

“She liked my work?” Creativity squeaked.

“Yeah. Let me know if you have any finished works, and maybe we can work something out.”

Nico took his notebook and the card. “Thank you. And sorry about running off.”

“No worries, kid.” Rhea turned and walked away, shooting him one last grin over her shoulder.

Nico stared down at the business card. “Oh my gosh.”

Thomas nudged him with his elbow. “Nice job.”

Nico’s face grew warm. “Thanks.” He glanced over at Creativity, who was bouncing up and down on his feet. He’d wrapped his arms around Paranoia, who was just standing there, looking like he wanted to be literally anywhere else. Heart was nowhere to be seen.

Despite Heart’s absence, Nico’s physical heart fluttered when he turned back to Thomas. “Let’s go get lunch.”

*******

Logic was sitting on the couch like usual when Nico walked into the house. “How did it go?” he asked.

Nico set his backpack down. “You already know, you were there.”

Logic sipped at the tea in his hands and shrugged. “I know. You got a second date with Thomas.”

“That’s right he did!” Creativity shouted as he followed Nico into the house. “Gosh, he’s so handsome! And kind! He helped us today, Logic!” Creativity flopped onto the couch with a wistful sigh. “I’m so glad we met him. He’s so much better than Jamie.”

Logic nodded. “Agreed. However, there was trouble with Heart, I hear.”

“And Paranoia,” Nico added. “He disappeared as soon as we left the book fair with Thomas.” He sat on the couch next to Logic. “I worry about him. And by extension, me. Jamie had the biggest effect on Paranoia. I remember when he was just Fear.” Nico shook his head. “Why does that feel like so long ago?”

Creativity sat up. “I didn’t exactly help with Paranoia today,” he admitted. “I made us stay up late, even though I knew Paranoia would get more and more antsy because of that.” He looked down at the floor and furrowed his brow. “I’ll have to talk to him.” He stood, wizard staff in hand. “But first, I’ve got poems to write and ballads to compose!” He twirled his staff. “See you later!” He hit the staff on the floor and disappeared in a flurry of sparkles.

Logic rolled his eyes. “So dramatic.” He sipped at his tea.

Nico turned on the couch so he was facing Logic. “Why didn’t you step in at all?”

Logic lowered his cup. “You don’t need me to be physically present to use your logical thinking, Nico. Besides, you are a very right-brained person. You’re more likely to listen to your heart than your head. Why do you think three out of your main four facets are very emotion based?”

“That makes sense, I guess,” Nico said. “I still wanted your support, though.”

Logic hummed. “I’ll keep that in mind, then. I’ll observe less and act more.” He stood and finished off his tea. “Well, I should go. Creativity is going to want to work, and if I don’t help, it will only lead to an incomprehensible mess. I think someone else wants to talk to you, anyway.”

He sank out, setting his teacup on the coffee table on the way down. Nico looked at the floor where he’d disappeared. “Are you going to put that in the sink?” he asked, pointing to the empty cup.

No response. Nico huffed and took the cup to go put it in the kitchen. He hopped over his backpack and nudged open the door to the kitchen, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw someone sitting at the dining table, flipping through the notebooks Nico had left there.

“Hey, Heart,” Nico said, setting the teacup on the counter. “Something wrong?”

He was asking because it definitely looked like something was wrong. Heart rested his head on his hand, using the other to idly flip the page of a notebook. The cracks on the one side of his face seemed to have worsened to their previous state.

Heart’s shoulders slumped at the sound of Nico’s voice. “I screwed everything up again, didn’t I?”

Nico sat down across from Heart. “I don’t think so.”

Heart shut the notebook. “But I pushed you back to him. I thought I made progress, but as soon as I saw him, I broke all over again. I’m just as broken as I was before.”

Nico reached across the table and took Heart’s hand. Nico did feel a little scared and sad after seeing his ex again, but it was hard to gauge just how much he was hurting internally until he saw Heart. Nico’s hands were still shaking a little even hours later.

“We’ll fix it,” Nico said. “Thomas isn’t the full solution. We do have to work on this on our own. But he can help. So can my friends and family. We won’t hurt forever.”

Heart squeezed Nico’s hand. “How can you be sure?”

In all honesty, Nico wasn’t sure. It was going to take a lot of work to get over his ex, fix his heart, and try to get Paranoia to stop effecting every waking moment of his life. It was going to be a hard journey to make.

But he wasn’t going to make that journey alone.

“I’ve just got a feeling,” Nico said. He stood and tugged Heart to his feet. “Come on. Let’s go have a nap.”

Heart followed after his host. “Are you sure we don’t need to talk about this?”

“All we need right now is some rest,” Nico said. “We can talk about it when we’re ready.”

A slight smile spread across Heart’s face. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> leave a kudos and comment if you want (or don't, you do you). you can let me know what you enjoyed, what you didn't like, what you think might happen, what you want to happen- anything! i appreciate any kind of feedback! thank you for reading! <3


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